KARACHI
The Sindh government on Monday expressed concerns over the exclusion of certain parts of the province from the census where population growth rate is higher than a certain benchmark.
The provincial government has warned that it will reject the results if its reservations are not addressed. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal had directed all provincial governments to complete the field verification of the population and housing census by May 15 in areas where population growth is not in line with normal demographic trends.
However, the Sindh government has objected to this decision, calling it arbitrary. Both a federal government ally and opposition party PTI have expressed their reservations over the census results.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has written a strongly-worded letter to Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, stating that the government will reject the census result if its reservations are not addressed.
The CM stated that, “It is wrong to judge the population growth of all the districts/talukas against a single universal benchmark. If such a benchmark was universally applicable, [then] there would have been no need to conduct the census at all, as the population growth could have easily been calculated based on that benchmark.”
Pointing to this, the chief minister “strongly urged” that the census activity continues in all the districts of Sindh till “each and every household and individual is accurately counted”. He also urged that “a certificate to that effect [be] provided by the Census District Officer as per the requirement of the census operations.”
“If the above reservation in addition to reservations conveyed through my earlier letters on the subject are not addressed, then I am constrained to say that the census results will not be acceptable to the Government and citizens of Sindh and will be outrightly rejected,” CM Murad concluded.
The MQM-P, an ally of the PDM government, has alleged that the population of urban Sindh has been shown less under a particular plan. Meanwhile, PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry has termed the ongoing census a “fraud” and said his party had already rejected the census.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has stressed on adopting a uniform data-driven policy to conclude the field enumeration in all provinces. He has directed targeted verification and enumeration operations to be carried out in areas with abnormal population growth.
He has also stressed on the completion of the exercise by May 15 for timely handing over of data to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, the Sindh spokesperson wrote: “[The] PPP leadership from day one has been expressing its reservations over the transparency of census [and] how information needs to be shared with provinces.
“Chief Minister Sindh has again written to Ahsan Iqbal Sb expressing his reservations over another controversial decision of FG.”
